The Department of Health and Social Care has launched a consultation on proposed legislation mandating the disclosure of industry payments to the healthcare sector.

The new secondary legislation would impose a duty on manufacturers and commercial suppliers of medicines, medical devices and borderline substances to disclose information on any payments or other benefits they provide to healthcare professionals and organisations.

The consultation comes as a result of the First Do No Harm report of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety (IMMDS) Review led by Baroness Cumberlege, in particular the second part of recommendation 8 regarding real and perceived conflicts of interest in the health system.

The DHSC is looking for respondents to share their views on:

• the information they would need to provide
• recipients in scope
• payments that would potentially need to be reported
• timings and content of reporting
• any alternatives to regulation

The consultation closes on 16 October 2023 and responses can be made using the online survey.

If you would like to discuss how the proposed legislation might impact you or your products, please contact our Healthcare team.

This article was written by Alice Burns and Rory Trust.